Octave The Cat

Octave released this analog classic - the Cat - during the era of the
Minimoog and ARP
Odyssey synthesizers. The Cat is actually
very much like the ARP Odyssey, so much so that ARP had sued them in the
late 1970's for cloning their designs. The Cat is a
monophonic/duophonic analog synthesizer with 2 oscillators capable of
square and sawtooth waveforms. VCO 1 also has a triangle waveform. Each
of the waveforms can be played simultaneously and mixed together and
there are additional sub-octave oscillators on each oscillator to blend
new and interesting sounds.

The original Cats were purely
monophonic, but then came the SRM update which added the duophonic
(2-voice) capability. The Cat (SRM) has a 2-note sample-and-hold feature
for each voice too! The Keyboard can be switched between 2-voice (poly)
and 1-voice (mono) modes. In mono mode the 2 oscillators can be stacked
for a rich mono-bass or mono-lead synth sound. Poly mode limits the
richness of the sound because each VCO becomes a separate dedicated
voice. In this mode you can create slightly more complex melodies with
overlapping notes or very basic pads. The sub-osc plays at an octave
below the actual note played which nicely adds some warmth or bottom to
your sounds. It has been used by The Dust Brothers, Chemical
Brothers, Devo, Rod Argent, David Bedford, Lyn Berger, Dave Greenslade,
OMD, Loaded and Mixmaster Morris.

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